Firm Insights assists you with managing and growing your law firm. Use Firm Insights to review your firm’s profitability estimates by matter, matter types, and staff.
If you find yourself asking the following questions, then our profitability reports can help:
- Is there more time that could have been billed?
- Are we discounting on invoices too often?
- Are we not collecting enough?
- What areas of law or matter types are performing the best?
- What areas of law or matter types are underperforming?
- Where am I losing potential profit? Where am I most profitable?
Note: By default, Firm Insights is only accessible to the firm owner. Firm Insights reporting access must be designated to other users by the firm owner. If you do not see Firm Insights or need to add access to anyone in your firm, reach out to your Account Manager or submit a ticket to support@smokeball.com.
Generating a Profitability Report
- Select Firm Insights.
- Select the Matter, Matter Type, or Fee Earner tabs.
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Filter your report by date, matter type, and attorney responsible using the provided fields and dropdown menus.
- We recommend choosing Closed under the Show matters menu for the best possible accuracy.
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Select the Run Report button.
Understanding a Matter Profitability Report
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The matter profitability report will show estimated profitability for individual matters.
- Estimated profitability in this report is calculated based on Activity Tracking time (AT Time) and the estimated annual costs of your staff.
- Filter the report by date, area of law, staff, or billing type.
- You can export the report to a .CSV (Excel) file or print it.
- Each matter has a variety of headers which give insight into profitability:
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AT Time |
Total time spent in Smokeball captured by Activity Tracking. |
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AT Total |
The total cost of Activity Tracking time is determined by the default hourly rate of your staff. |
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Staff Cost |
Staff Cost is calculated using the Estimated Annual Cost. When calculating the annual cost, you should assume what the staff's wages would be for full-time employment. You should also account for other expenses, such as rent, health insurance coverage, and other bills. If you do not have specific figures available, add 10-15% to the salary as a starting point. Note: Smokeball then divide the number of hours worked per year for a 37.5 hour work week to calculate the estimated hourly staff cost in the Fee Earner report. |
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Fees Entered |
Total amount of Time & Fees Entered into Smokeball manually or through AutoTime. |
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Fees Billed |
Total amount of time and fees invoiced. |
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Fees Collected |
Total amount paid on invoices. |
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Collection % |
Percentage of the total fees collected vs. fees billed. |
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Estimated Profit |
Estimated Profit is calculated from the fees collected minus staff costs. |
- Note: The filters you choose determine which matters appear on the report but do not apply to the information in the columns (AT Time, AT Total, etc.). The information in the columns is from the entire history of the matter.
Understanding a Matter Type Profitability Report
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The Matter Type Profitability report is similar to the Matter Profitability report, except it looks at all matters versus individual matters.
- Estimated profitability in this report is calculated based on time spent in Activity Tracking (AT Time) and the estimated costs of staff.
- Filter the Matter Type report by date and area of law.
- You can export the report to a .CSV (Excel) file or print it.
- See above for an explanation of each header.
- Note: The filters you choose determine which matter types appear on the report but do not apply to the information in the columns (AT Time, AT Total, etc.). The information in the columns is from the entire history of these matter types.
Understanding a Fee Earner Report
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The Fee Earner report shows your firm’s estimated profitability by staff. Use the Fee Earner report to assess your staff’s performance and identify areas of improvement.
- Filter the date range.
- Review staff data for the filtered period of time.
- Export the report to a .CSV file (Excel) or print it.
- Each fee earner has a variety of headers available that gives insight into profitability.
|
AT Time |
Total time spent in Smokeball captured by Activity Tracking as well as any manual activity entries or manual overrides of tracked activity. |
|
AT Total |
The total cost of Activity Tracking time is determined by the default hourly rate of your staff. |
|
Staff Cost |
Staff Cost is calculated using the Estimated Annual Cost divided by 37.5. When calculating the annual cost, you should assume what the staff's wages would be for full-time employment. You should also account for other expenses, such as rent, health insurance coverage, and other bills. If you do not have specific figures available, add 10-15% to the salary as a starting point. |
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Fees Entered |
Total amount of Time & Fees Entered into Smokeball manually or through AutoTime. |
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Fees Billed |
Total amount of time and fees invoiced for the specified date range. |
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Fees Collected |
Total amount paid (payment can occur in any date range) on invoiced time and fees in the specified date range. |
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Collection % |
Percentage of the total fees collected vs. fees entered for the specified date range. |
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Estimated Profit |
Estimated Profit is calculated from the fees collected and staff cost. |
- Note: Unlike the Matter and Matter Type profitability reports, the information in the columns of the Fee Earner report is limited by the date filters you choose.
Did You Know
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Right-click on the gray headers to customize your viewing options for each report.
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Each matter has a Matter Insights tab with profitability data.